Persons who work or exercise near motor vehicle traffic can be made safer by wearing clothing that highlights the person's presence to passing motor vehicles. To promote the safety of roadway workers and pedestrians, clothing manufacturers commonly produce bright clothing to make the wearer more conspicuous. Manufacturers also routinely secure retroreflective articles to the outer surface of the clothing to improve wearer conspicuity. Retroreflective articles are passive devices that return incident light back toward the light source. The articles highlight a person's presence to motorists at nighttime by reflecting light from the motor vehicles' headlamps back to the motor vehicle driver. The bright image displayed by the retroreflective article ultimately gives motorists more time to react to the person's presence.
Originally, retroreflective materials were generally all silver in color. As the need arose for retroreflective articles that were colored other than silver, the retroreflective nature of the articles suffered. Therefore, there remains a need for colored retroreflective articles that have increased retroreflective properties.